


Like You Care For Us

by naasad



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: ADHD Dick Grayson, Angst, Autistic Damian Wayne, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dick is Damian's Legal Guardian, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Non-Binary Fae Swamp Thing, Sedation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 07:51:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16572608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naasad/pseuds/naasad
Summary: Dick is near-fatally injured. His family worries.





	Like You Care For Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @thenewrobin06 who won the giveaway! She asked for Dick being hurt and one of the family members finding him, taking him back to the manor, and trying to get him to take better care of himself.
> 
> Yes, the title is from a Doc McStuffins song. Again. The same one, actually. I don't care.

Dick hauled himself onto the bank, gasping for breath. He laid there for a moment, coughing up water, sucking in oxygen. His hand hovered protectively by his thigh and he cried out in pain as he accidentally jostled the rebar impaled there.

This was it, he thought. A battle with a metal monster, a major wound, and a swim in a polluted, radioactive swamp… He really was going to die.

Or develop superpowers, but that was just plain unlikely.

The bank stirred underneath his hand and Swamp Thing appeared out of the muck. “You are dying,” the eldritch being observed, seemingly untroubled. (Of course, bodies were just carbon and water for the plants, meat for the animals.) “You will die without help.”

Dick laughed, tears coursing down his face. “No shit.” Maybe that wasn’t the best way to address something otherworldly, but he was already dying, what could they do? He gasped and whimpered “I never - never - I never finished.”

Swamp Thing tilted their head in scrutiny. “Never finished what?”

Dick closed his eyes and swallowed. “Helping. Never finished helping. Just wanted to help people. Make them not hurt.”

Swamp Thing bowed their head in thought. “You helped me,” they said. They disappeared.

So this was it.

He was going to die alone.

He shivered in the cold air, stifling sobs as it aggravated the wound. It was still bleeding.

He was tired…. So tired….

_ I don’t want to die, _ he thought.  _ I just want to sleep. _

“Grayson!” Hands grabbed and pulled at him. “Get up! Please, please…. Get up, baba!”

Dick groaned as he was hauled over thin shoulders.

“Please. You have to help me. It’s not far. Just walk.”

Sleep. He just wanted to sleep.

“No! You can’t. Not yet. You can’t leave me. I know how bad it hurts, but you have to walk. Just one step, come on. Please.”

One step. He could do one step.

“Good, that’s good. Now one more.”

It hurt.

“I know. I know, just one more. You can’t let me do all the heavy lifting, I’ll drop us.”

There were a lot of ‘just one mores’, but eventually, he was able to crawl into the back seat of a car. Finally, he could sleep.

“Not yet, baba, please.”

The screech of tires cut through the night air, and then they were moving - and fast.

“Not yet. Almost, but not yet.”

The time passed so slow. He was dying - “You’re not. You’re not!” - why couldn’t they just let him die? - “Never!”

Finally, they stopped. Strong, firm, gentle hands carried him out of the car.

He screamed as he was set down on the table.

Someone pushed the hair away from his forehead. “Sleep,” they said. “It’s okay. We’ve got you. Sleep now.”

Something pinched his arm. He was too tired to get away.

He slept.

 

* * *

 

The first time he woke up, there was yelling and someone was squeezing his hand so hard it hurt.

“No! I’m not leaving him!”

“This is not a discussion! School is non-negotiable! I already let you miss enough. I am your father and it’s my duty to pro-”

“But you’re  _ not _ my legal guardian, so I  _ don’t _ have to do anything  _ you _ say!”

He’d have to smooth that over. Later, though.

He went back to sleep.

The second time he woke up, there was a gangly fourteen-year-old sleeping plastered against his left side, no doubt listening to his heartbeat. Machines can fail, Damian had told him once.

Dick smiled and scritched his fingernails through Damian’s undercut.

The boy sighed softly and shifted, throwing an arm around his guardian’s torso.

“Good morning, Master Dick,” Alfred whispered, coming out of seemingly nowhere as usual. “Or should I say good afternoon?”

“What day is it?” Dick murmured.

“Wednesday, sir. We’ve kept you sedated four days. And if I do say so, it looked as if you could use it.”

Dick smiled and narrowly avoided rolling his eyes. “Thanks, Alfie, you’re the best.”

Alfred shot him a withering glance. “Don’t think you’re getting out of this conversation so easily, young man. Flattery will get you nowhere. Now, how long had you been without sleep before your misfortune in the swamp?”

Dick bit his lip, stalling.

The arm around his ribs squeezed. “Answer the question, Grayson,” Damian ordered.

Dick sighed. “Fifty-three hours.”

“And what on God’s green earth would possess you to do such a thing?”

Dick scrubbed a hand over his face, avoiding Alfred’s gaze. Sometimes, the butler’s disappointment felt rather like a smite from the heavens. “It was the anniversary of Lian’s death, so I was spending the day with Roy. Then Haly’s called and said they needed an aerialist last minute due to a wild cat where they had to leave the flying squadron behind and meet up at the next stop.”

He paused at Alfred and Damian’s blank looks. “The aerialist they had went ahead to the next town with some others to start getting things set up, but there was a mudslide, so they had to they had to rebook at a different stop without her in order for the tour to stay on schedule. They were going to meet up again at the next originally scheduled stop, but they were short handed for the rebook.”

“Ah.” Damian nodded sagely.

“And then I was just going to do a quick patrol before crashing, but I ran across some run-of-the-mill arms dealers and tracked them to the swamp. Where they had an attack robot.”

Alfred raised an eyebrow. “And I assume you should have had time between your arrival at the circus and your performance for at least a nap?”

Dick shook his head. “I was busy helping out with the hay burners, and then I was babysitting Betty’s granddaughter. Betty’s been the circus psychic since before I was born, it was the least I could do. And Zitka missed me.”

“Of course,” Damian deadpanned. “The elephant.”

Dick headbutted him gently. “There’s a study that elephants feel a broader range of emotions than humans do.”

“There’s also a study that they view us as particularly ‘cute’ pets.”

“And how would you feel if you hadn’t seen Titus in six years?”

“Point,” Damian conceded. He sighed. “It is admirable that you help others as much as you do. I… try to be more like you in that regard. But it is stupid to consistently risk your own health and life to do so.”

Dick laughed hysterically and dragged a hand down his face. “Then what is the point of us? Aren’t we supposed to be the ones who take risks no else will so everyone else can be safe and unhurt?”   
“Oh, my.” Alfred clicked his tongue sadly. “I do fear Master Bruce has been a terrible influence on you. there is a reason there is an ‘us’ and not only a ‘you’, and it is to support each other. And to give each other time for ourselves when necessary. You do so much for everyone, Master Dick, but you can’t help anyone when you’re dead.”

“No,” Dick sighed, “but at least I’d finally be able to catch a break.”

Damian scrambled upright. “Don’t say that!” He bit his lip, looking younger than he ever had. “We’re family. Ohana, remember? From that stupid movie you’re always quoting? We’re not going to forget you or leave you behind, so don’t you dare leave us! Not again.” He put a hand on Dick’s shoulder, trembling. “Just let us take care of you, baba. Please.”

Dick wept. “Okay,” he sniffled eventually. “Okay, I’ll try.”

Damian smiled and pressed a kiss to his forehead, a benediction of a sort. “Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

A few weeks later, Dick returned to the swamp. “Are you here?” he asked the air.

Swamp Thing emerged from the depths and waded into the shallows. “You are healed,” they noted.

“Yes.” Dick shivered and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Did you bring Robin to me?”

Swamp Thing hummed. “You helped me. I helped you. Now there is no debt.”

“Tha-”

Swamp Thing raised a single mossy eyebrow in warning.

Dick swallowed his gratitude, remembering his folklore. “I’m glad everything worked out like it did.”

Swamp Thing nodded, swaying like a tree in the wind. “As am I,” they rumbled. “Go back to your kind now, little human. You don’t belong here.” They turned and started walking deeper into their beloved Green. Then they paused and looked over their shoulder. “You should let others help you more often.”

Dick nodded. “My little brother - well, not so little anymore - says that, too.”

“He is wise.” They pointed in the direction of the city. “Go now.”

Dick nodded and left.

When he arrived at his apartment, Damian was waiting, vegetarian pizza sitting open on the coffee table in front of him. “We’re staying in and watching Disney tonight.”

Dick smiled and hung up his coat. “Okay.” He flopped down on the couch, ruffled his brother’s hair, kicked off his shoes, and reached for the remote.


End file.
